DG 17(8) Where The Worlds Touch

In this chapter Domiarn, his spouse Iris and Amaranta find an interesting thing in the sublevel of Domiarn's castle.

  DG 17(8) Where The Worlds Touch

I really want to creep into the bedroom quietly, but the screechy stairs reveal me. I walk into the hall, and realize, that all attempts to hide my absence are to no avail �" Iris is already up and is sitting by the fireplace with his back to me.

- Good morning, Domiarn! You’re at it again, eh? Here is a question for you �" why do you need a family, if all you want is murders? �" Baron Lio turns to me and his face is lit up by the light and shadows, created by the fire. It really emphasizes his natural beauty, especially when he is full of anger, like right now.

- How do you know where I was? �" My voice lacks confidence, and my defenses are weak. Mainly because I was not ready to defend myself �" I thought he was asleep.

- Believe me, the smelly mist of your addiction hangs in every corner of this castle. You have married me, knowing darn well that I hate violence in any shape or form. My pregnant Amaranta is going to be here any minute, and Domiarn crawls out of the dungeon all bloody and happy! Do you need a family? Are you capable of love? Can you handle the honor and responsibility to have a child, our star blessed son, in this house? �" Iris frowns, planning to add something else about how incurable I am, and right at this moment Amaranta is really walking into the door.

She is sad, unfocused, and sits in a chair, holding her belly.

- You’re right, except I’ll have a daughter.

The wind flies into the window, bringing the sounds of birds chirping. Iris and I look at each other, not willing to argue about an obvious thing �" she will give birth to a boy.

- Don’t yell at him, Iris… I know who he killed today. This guy lived next door to me. He was not allright in the head. He suffered badly. It is probably good that he finally decided to come to Domiarn, and die by his hand… - The girl interrupts herself, and looks at Iris with love and tenderness, admiring him, as if in a daze. �" Did you guys know that the dungeon under the castle has more than one level?

- You were there?! �" Lio jumps up from the armchair, and approaches Amaranta �" Why??!

- So, I looked around the castle while waiting for you.

- You saw the body… No, you saw just the head! �" Iris hugs his girlfriend and looks at me disapprovingly. �" Why did you go to the dungeon this morning?

- Found that head only accidentally. This is not why I went there. You will not understand anyway! �" Amaranta frees herself from Iris’s embrace and wants to go away.

I swear, the glances Iris casts at me burn my skin. Yeah, this guy came to me early on, asked to be relieved from the pain of life. Fell to his knees begging me, everything as usual. I could not resist the temptation. But how is this my fault, that Amaranta went to the sublevel, and saw what she was not supposed to? And why did she go there? And to the deepest level, too?

- Please don’t wander around the dungeon anymore, I beg you!! �" Iris runs after the girl with mixed epression of guilt and care on his face.

- You don’t understand! There is something there! Someone… Someone lives there. He… She is crying.

- Allright, that does it! We’re leaving this darned place. Get your stuff together! �" Lio stops in front of Amaranta, blocking her way.

- Don’t you order me around! �" She goes around the young man quickly, and runs down the squeaky staircase.

We’re looking at each other in silence, wrapped in the smells of the beautiful spring, wanting to live and feel, this unruly spring, unwilling to submit, and determined in its goals and desires, just like the girl, that appeared in our life in such an unexpected manner.

- I’m sorry. �" I really am full of sincerity, like a drunk, caught with a bottle yet again, that wants to say anything to get back into your favor, and to avoid punishment, while having neither power, nor intention to part with a devastating addiction. �" Iris, you can’t rule this family with an iron fist. I might submit, but she never will.

He shakes his head and cuddles my face in his palms.

- I know how hard it is for you. - Our lips are so close, and the smell of his expensive, rare perfume drives me crazy, more than anything in the world. �" Next time someone visits you for the purpose of commiting suicide by your hand, don’t jump at the opportunity. Call me. I’ll help both you and this person. Just don’t do it behind my back, OK?

I nod, and give in to his power that he has over me. His embrace melts my body, and it feels so good. The first time in my life I’m not afraid to hug a guy, and not afraid to be ignored, or yelled at, like what Arkand used to do.

- I love you. �" I whisper, quite unexpectedly.

Iris smiles, and nods towards the bedroom. What a great thought! We need to follow through on it.

Suddenly we’re interrupted by a muffled scream, coming from downstairs.

We run there, only to find the door to the sublevel slightly opened. Someone moans in the dark.

Lio runs down the stairs.

- Amaranta! Please get up! Did you get hurt? Why do you keep coming back here, and without a light, either?

- So, the candle got blown out by a draft… If you want, you can come with me, just don’t yell at each other, and don’t bother me in my search.

I appear behind their backs with a new candle, that I grabbed from the table in the main hall. The girl takes the candle, and goes down the corridor confidently.

The walls of the sublevel, built by my paternal grandfather, Duguar Gidealis, press you down with hopelessness only in the beginning. Then you get used to it. Some of them are dark and dry, other parts are wet and covered by mold.

- When I came back from Tustridge, I went straight to the castle, as you asked me. �" Amaranta goes along the corridor, as if she knows where to go. �" Namigur met me, but he was gloomy. I think, he is always like that… Natakruna is a sweet girl, although way too fat for her age, so, she fed me, and put fresh sheets on your guys’s bed. I could not sleep that night, heard some whimpering. I lit a candle, and followed that sound. The castle is full of all kinds of noises, drafts, and what have you, but I had to figure out, you know. So I went down and heard that whimpering from behind the door to the dungeon. I did not go there that night �" that was way too scary. But the next morning I went there again. And here is what I found. Watch this.

Amaranta reaches the end of the corridor, and pushes an unlocked door, that opens into the darkness, slowly and without a sound.

- Yesterday the same whimpering brought me here. I went down several steps, but it was too dark. Notice how the light of the candle is drowned by the darkness… This is how it was yesterday, too. I felt as if I was wrapped into the black velvet paper. I was just too afraid to go any further.

Not just the light but even the girl’s voice is absorbed by the darkness of the second level under my castle. Honestly, I did know about it, just never went there.

- I’m dizzy. �" Says Iris in a stifled voice, grabbing the wall. �" Domiarn, why do I feel this way?

 - What do you see on your generator?

- An outline of a narrow corridor, going down. Really deep down there. And if I try to send the ultrasound there, my head gets dizzy, as if my wave bumps into something… Very, very dense. I feel nauseous when the wave gets back. �" Lio falls to the floor, breathing hard.

- Well, I mean, that’s impossible. �" I squat by Iris. �"The wave does not care what it touches. It comes back to you with information about an obstacle or lack of thereof.

- Can you hear it now? Here it is! This whimpering! Again! �" Amaranta grabs my hand, and pulls me down. Her eyes are full of fear, but at the same time she wants to know, who is crying in the darkness, and why.

We take several steps down, and the candle in girl’s hands gets blown out again.

- Oh, my! �" Her voice rings with disappointment and worry.

This “oh, my” gets immediately absorbed by the layers of thick darkness around us.

- Maybe we should get back! �" Baron Lio screams all the way from upstairs in a demanding manner.

When is he going to get it? You can’t tell this girl what to do!

- No, wait. Don’t you hear? There is a child crying there! �" Amaranta, holding me by the belt, pushes me yet one more step down, while hiding behind.

I did not hear anything.

- Don’t go any further!

There is a sound of hurried footsteps, and Iris stops Amaranta, who, in turn, jerks me by the belt.

- Something down there is jamming my signal!

- What does it mean? �" Asks the girl in a shaken whisper.

- It means that someone is ordering Iris to stop broadcasting ultrasound waves from his generator. �" I try to catch my breath, and find the correct words. �" It is a binary form of transmission. There is no one at this time in history on this planet, let alone in this basement, who can send you this signal, Iris. You take that back, buster! �" I raise my voice, essentially because fear slowly envelops me with the idea, that someone can actually be sending that signal from underground.

My spouse does not answer.  

- I can’t feel his hands anymore. �" Amaranta says in a very quiet voice. �" He is gone.

I turn around to see where Lio is, then I slip on the stairs, and tumble down.

The girl screams and the door upstairs slams shut ever so loudly.

Author's Note

Please bear with me (or fox with me! :). I have started translating this deeply philosophical book literally from the middle, with the easiest chapter possible, to see how this is going to sit with the American reader. So from this chapter the story, the plot and the heroes will not appear straight and understandable, but that can be fixed later.